The Secret Army
by Klug
Summary: Jake Bird, a normal 13 year old kid, wakes up one February morning from a weird dream involving a kid named Percy. Soon enough, he discovers that he is a demigod and finds himself part of a prophecy and a war that changes Camp Half Blood as we know it.
1. A Dream and a Face

**Author's Note: Unlike the actual Percy Jackson books-and perhaps many of the PJO fanfics on here- this story really brings out a darker side of the world of Camp Half Blood. I will try to keep the comedic charm of the series in it, but it will get dark. Just a warning. Also, I apologize, as I made the name of the chapter the same name as the story mistakenly. Anyway, this is my first time writing a Percy Jackson fanfic, and I hope whoever reads it likes it! Leave a review with how you like the first chapter and perhaps your insights on the rest of the story. ~Klug~ **

"We have to get to him soon," Percy whispered in my ear. "If we don't get to him soon, we may miss our chance. We can't risk waiting to try and kill him any longer. Every day that passes, they grow stronger."

"I realize that," I grumbled. "Why don't you just do your sea water thing and drown them all?"

Percy shook his head. "I can't. It's too risky. It would take too much energy to get the water all the way up here, we're too far inland, and we don't want to give them time to retaliate. We just want to kill Chad and get out of here."

I looked down at my bow. I already had the arrow locked in-this bow wasn't your stick and a string of the old days- and there was no way this baby could miss. I had used my magic to engrave Chad's name into the side of the arrow. When you do this correctly by magic, the arrow, once fired, will not miss. I had then dipped the arrow in a jar of poison that I kept in my backpack at all times. Just to be safe.

In the event that we would have to fight our way out-which was very possible- I had my two 2 foot long Celestial Bronze knives on me, disguised as guitar picks, ready for use if need be. Of course, Percy had Riptide with him. Fortunately, Annabeth, Clarisse, Connor Stoll, and Sean were on standby, ready to pick us up once the job was done. Or if things got nasty. Hopefully they wouldn't get nasty.

Percy motioned to me and we moved out of our position in the huge, leafy trees. Chad's army of demigods was stationed throughout the woods, hiding in the darkness, both from monsters and Camp Half Blood alike. We knew for a fact, after days of surveillance, that Chad and his second in commands were stationed near us. We had spotted him with binoculars only minutes before. As we moved in, weapons in hand, we saw a couple of Chad's demigods. They all had long hair and scowls on their faces. Percy pushed me behind a big grey rock that would shield us from their eyes. We hid in silence as they passed us, and we caught a bit of their conversation.

"Why do we have to do so much patrolling? Those Camp Half Blood dunces will never find us." One of them, beady eyed, black hair, and a fat, squashed nose said.

"Shut up. They could've followed us here from New York." The other kid said. He was tall, a lanky, greasy haired dude with a paranoid look in his eyes.

"I'm just sayin' it's possible…" The other kid complained.

The two kids moved on. Percy and I came out from behind the rock after we were sure nobody would see us again.

"That was close," I muttered. Percy shook his head in agreement. We jogged towards the tents that we knew belonged to Chad and his second in commands. As we got there, we saw Chad conversing with one of them. I had never seen Chad up close before, and I peered out of the ditch we dropped ourselves into to get a look at him.

He looked about 16. He had dirty blonde hair that was choppily cut and uneven. His eyebrows were creepily small, yet bushy in some weird way. He had pale brown eyes that looked both knowledgeable and crazy at the same time. He was skinny and lean from being on the run for most of his life. His clothes were nearly the same as every other half blood I had seen that followed him, a black sweatshirt and grey sweatpants. I couldn't hear what he was saying to the other kid, but it looked like he was lecturing him or something.

"That's Chad?" I said. Percy nodded.

"Any idea what his parentage is?" I asked.

Percy sighed. "No. We have no idea."

I thought it was absurd that this had happened. How was it possible that they had never figured out his parentage? Or that he even existed? That any of these kids existed? It was crazy. It seemed crazy.

Just then, I saw Chad get up and start to walk into his tent. Percy sat up. "It's time," He said gravely. I knew that he didn't like the idea of trying to kill other half bloods as much-maybe even more- than anyone else did. "Take the shot."

I raised my bow, took aim, and started to let the arrow fly.

I opened my eyes and saw the familiar outline of the ceiling in my bedroom. Sitting up and shaking my head, I thought about that crazy dream I had just had. I had been about to kill someone, I nearly shot him with an arrow. And that kid, Percy… It was all so weird. We were both acting like we were in a war. Not like my usual dreams. Not that I ever dreamt much, anyway, but when I did dream, I got chased around by Bowser from Mario because me and some guy from Disney Channel tried to get me to rob a bank with him. My dreams are weird, but that one was just crazy. It seemed almost, real. _Too_ real.

I shook my hair around for a second, and then got out of bed. What was today? Sunday? Wednesday? No, Thursday. Oh joy. I hate Thursdays. You have to go to school, first of all, and it's like the place is mocking you, like "Haha, you only have one more day until the weekend, but until then, this place is going to be Hell on earth for you." Not only that, but it was winter. February 20, to be exact. I had to trudge through the foot and a half of snow that the sky had oh- so graciously given us last week to my bus stop, which I dreaded. Why couldn't I just stay home and play my guitar all day?

I sat there for a few minutes, knowing that I didn't need to get up and take a shower for at least two more minutes. For some reason, I couldn't get my mind off that dream. No, not dream, my conscience kept telling me. _Vision._ No. That was stupid. I wasn't psychic. People don't have _visions, _they have dreams. Right?

I shook my head and tried to stop thinking about it, but the thing seemed to get permanently stuck in my brain. Whatever.

My mom burst in to the room. "Jake!" She said. "Hurry up, get in the shower, you only have twenty minutes to catch the bus!"

"Crap," I muttered. I got out of bed, took a shower, put on my Red Sox hat, got dressed, and went out into the kitchen. As I was eating my cereal, I heard a noise coming from the sink. The faucet was running. I stood up and looked over to the left where the sink was. The water coming from the faucet was making a mist, and it was filling all throughout the room. And I saw a face-a teenager's face, about 16 or so, with black hair and green eyes. It was eerily familiar. But just as soon as I saw the face, it disappeared. I had a strong urge to pinch myself, to see if I was still dreaming.

It couldn't have been, but I wanted to get out of my house and outside. I needed to think, because that suspicion was growing. As I headed out of the house, my mind was swirling. I knew something was about to happen, but I didn't know what.

Because I had a feeling that the face I had just seen was connected with my dream. And my whole world was about to take a hit. Hard.


	2. My Morning Gets Weirder

**Author's Note: Well, my school was closed today because the roof was leaking (Crappy old roofs are AWESOME when you want to write a story instead of going to school), so I got to spend some quality time with this chapter. While I was proofreading this, I did notice some stupid mistakes... if you see a word that doesn't make much sense where it is, sorry, I might've screwed up a few more times. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter, as it took me about five good hours to write it. **

I trudged out the door of my house, my black Under Armor backpack on, with all gazillion pounds of homework I had to do the night before in it. I was wearing my Boston Bruins black sweatshirt on, my Aerosmith shirt on under it, and a pair of dark blue jeans. Not exactly your typical clothing for February just south of Boston, but I survived the cold. I had my lucky guitar picks in my pocket, and I was longing to pull them out and pretend that I was playing my guitar.

Now, with the lucky guitar picks, I have to explain. I've had these guitar picks my whole life. According to my mom, my dad left them for me before he…left. I don't know why he left, but he did, and I don't remember ever seeing him. Now, my mom doesn't like to talk about him much, but when she does, she always got some kind of twinkle in her eyes. She had told me he was a great musician, was very rich and powerful, and was great at sports, and that he seemed to make everything seem warmer and light. I didn't know what to think of him, but he seemed like some kind of Steven Tyler/Bill Gates/Larry Bird dude to me. Anyway, he left these wicked cool psychedelic guitar picks when he left, as if he knew that I would play the guitar when I got older. That was the only thing I'd ever seen from him. I didn't know what he looked like. I've never seen a picture of him. Never talked to him on the phone, Skype, IMing, whatever. It's like he just disappeared after I was born.

By the way, you might be wondering why I chose to compare my dad to Larry Bird. Larry Bird is my step-uncle. Yes, I am related to one of the greatest basketball players ever to live. He's my mom's half brother, because her dad (my grandfather) got divorced from my grandmother, and ended up marrying Larry Bird's mom. I'm like him, in a way. He never knew his dad either. You would be thinking, _oh my God, that's so awesome, Jake's related to Larry Bird!_ It's pretty cool, but I don't see him that much. And it's horrible, because I _suck_ at basketball. Really. I can't hit a layup for my life. Weirdly enough, I can hit 3 pointers at times, but everything else I'm just bad at. Baseball is my thing. I'm a pitcher.

Anyway, I was walking up the snow covered roads and sidewalks, trying to make any sense whatsoever out of anything that had happened. The dream, the face in the sink, everything. Was I going crazy? It was very possible. Maybe my math homework had made me go crazy. Who knows? I decided that I'd try to forget it. 6 hours of school might be just what I needed to forget it, right?

Wrong.

As I turned the corner on to the road where my bus stop was, I started to get the feeling that I was being watched. Sighing, I looked around the street. Nothing. Just a couple of bland houses with cats staring through the windows. No people in sight, as a matter of fact. I gave myself a slap in the face. Why was I acting so weird lately?

As I continued walking up the street, I did see someone. A guy a couple of years older than me was standing on a lawn about twenty feet in front of me. He was dressed in all black. I'm serious, all black. Black Asics sneakers, black sweatpants, and a black hoodie pulled over his eyes. He could've been a modern teenage ninja. Now, I've seen Goth people in the past, but even they weren't this extreme.

I kept on walking; minding my own business, but this guy seemed to be focusing on me. His head moved to the left as I continued past him. Right when I passed, he moved his face upwards and lifted off the hood. Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see his mouth curled in a snarl. His dark blue eyes looked at me like they were trying to fire lasers out of them.

"Stop," He growled. This surprised me. Was this guy talking to me? I decided to ignore him. I continued what I was doing, and started to walk away. I only got about five feet.

The guy jumped out in front of me with surprising speed. "I said, stop," He glared at me.

Once again, I tried to just walk past him. This time he pushed me. I wasn't expecting it, so I fell on to the cold hard concrete of the street.

"Dude," I said. "What the hell?"

Grumpy "Stop" Kid came over to me. He pulled a knife out of his pocket- a seven inch, bronze dagger. He grabbed me by my sweatshirt, pulled me up to my feet, and pointed the knife at me. Its point was only inches away from my chest.

"Thought you could hide, could you?" He whispered angrily. "Where are the others?"

I started to get seriously scared. What was this guy talking about?

"I don't know what you're talking about!" I screamed. He punched me in the stomach, and I crumpled back on to the ground. I'd never been punched that hard in my life, and this kid didn't even look like he was trying.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," He snarled. "Where are they?" This time he kicked me in the side. Blinded by pain, I didn't even bother answering.

"Fine," He said. "We can succeed without you." I managed to get myself to look up, and I saw that the kid was grinning. He raised the knife above his, and I got the feeling that he was about to kill me. God, this morning just sucked.

The kid plunged the knife down, and I knew I was about to die. He'd probably leave me here, bleeding to death on a cold February morning. But I didn't die.

A flash of orange, and a yell. I scrambled into a sitting position. A teenager wearing an orange windbreaker and jeans had charged the kid with the knife. He was now holding a glowing three foot long sword, and was trading blows with the other kid. The newcomer swung the sword with ease, like nothing on earth came easier to him. He looked strong. But then I noticed his face, and my jaw dropped open. Green eyes, black hair… it was the kid from my dream. The same kid that I thought I had seen in the sink. Percy. What the heck was going on?

I felt a warm hand grab my arm and I looked upwards. A tall, tan girl with blonde hair was standing over me, and she pulled me to my feet with unexpected strength. She was wearing the same orange T-shirt that I had seen in my dream.

The girl looked at me, and I noticed that her eyes were grey. Completely grey. I'd never seen that before. "You okay?" She said wearily.

"Yes," I said. "What's going on?"

She shook her head. "Wait until things calm down, then we'll explain."

"Who's that kid? He just tried to freaking kill me!" I questioned, the panic in my voice growing. Here I was, talking to a random girl while two teenagers fought with deadly weapons only teen feet away. Not exactly my typical morning.

The girl shook her head again. "We don't know. Not a monster…" She stared away, like she was thinking hard. I turned my attention back to the fight that was going on behind us. The kid with the orange windbreaker-I guess his name was Percy- sliced up at the guy in black's neck, but he ducked under it. Percy then kicked him in the chest and sent the guy sprawling. He quickly got back up to his feet, pointed at me, and said "This isn't over!" He then turned, hopped over a fence, and ran into the dense woods behind us. Percy caught his breath, and walked back over to us, sword still in hand.

"Annabeth," He called. "That-that wasn't a monster. That was a kid." The girl, Annabeth, nodded grimly.

Oh no, I thought. Annabeth? That name was mentioned in my dream too.

"You're-you were… You were in my sink!" I exclaimed stupidly.

Percy grinned. "Sorry about that," He said. "Iris message. We had to make sure you were ready to be picked up," He then clicked something on the hilt of the sword, and it shrunk until it was…a ballpoint pen. Of course. Percy put it in his pocket.

"Picked up?" I asked. "What the hell is going on? That kid nearly killed me! You two-you were in my dream."

Annabeth's face darkened. She looked at me. "What dream?"

I quickly explained about the dream, how I was with Percy, and how we were supposed to be…killing someone.

Annabeth's eyes looked stormy. "This is getting bad." She said, and Percy nodded.

"I kept thinking about _demigods,_" I said. "What's going on?"

Annabeth and Percy started walking towards the main street. They motioned for me to follow them. "We need to get you to camp," Percy said.

"What camp?"

"Camp Half-Blood. It's safe...for kids like us." Annabeth explained.

"What do you mean _us_?" I questioned. "You're talking about monsters and camp… what's happening? Did I do something wrong? Am I going crazy or something and you guys are here to take me to some hospital?"

Percy laughed. "Nope," He smiled. "This is real. Just hold on for another few minutes. We'll explain then."

I started to think about what I was doing. I was walking away with two random teenagers that were in my dreams, to go to some Camp Half-Blood, whatever that was… I thought about running away, going back to my house. But something in my head told me not to. I agreed.

"Hold on," Annabeth said. "What's your name?" I just realized that in the heat of everything that had happened, I hadn't introduced myself.

"Jake," I said. "Jake Bird." Neither of them said anything, or seemed to notice the last name connection. Maybe they weren't from around here.

"And, your parents…" Percy said carefully. "You only live with one of them, right?"

I blinked. "Yeah, my mom. How'd you know that?"

Percy nodded. "That narrows it..." He muttered to himself. "It's like that for all of us," He then explained. We all lived with only one of our parents. The other... you've never met your dad before, have you?"

I scowled. Sore subject. "No,"

"Sorry," Annabeth said. "But it was like that for all of us. Until we came to camp."

I nodded. I didn't even want to ask yet. They'd obviously explain everything once we got to wherever we were going.

"Here we are," said Percy. "Chariot's right over here." I hadn't even noticed that we'd covered so much ground. We were on the outskirts of the woods near my neighborhood. Him and Annabeth jogged over to a clearing behind a couple of huge trees. I followed them, and gasped.

There was a giant chariot, the size of a minivan, parked-do you park chariots?- fifteen feet away from me. Not only that, but two horses with massive bird wings were in front of it, ready to pull it, or fly, I guess, considering they had wings. Percy went over to one and argued with nobody, "Come on, Blackjack, we weren't gone that long."

I gave a questioning look to Annabeth. "He… he has a thing with the pegasi," she explained. Right. Of course he does.

Percy and Annabeth hopped into the chariot. Percy went into the front and grabbed the reins. They motioned for me to get in, so I did, and sat down next to Annabeth. Surprisingly, the seats were made out of leather. I looked around, and the thing looked high tech.

"So…" I said slowly. "This is a chariot? Like one of the things the ancient Greeks used?"

Annabeth and Percy looked at each other, exchanging grins.

"Exactly," Annabeth said.


	3. A Lot Of Stuff Gets Explained

**Author's Note: Well, here we go. Chapter 3. This one isn't very exciting, it's really just Percy and Annabeth explaining to Jake who he is and everything. Nonetheless, it sets the stage for him to first come to Camp Half Blood. So, uh, hope you guys-whoever's reading this- like it! :D**

Did I mention that this chariot was by far the most tricked out vehicle I'd ever been in?

I mentioned that the seats were leather, but there's more. There were mini-fridges on the inside of the doors that had just about anything you wanted in them. Buttons of all shapes and sizes were on the dashboard. Harpoons and bow turrets were bolted to the wall of the chariot, and a variety of deadly weapons were all over the place.I had no idea how Percy and Annabeth knew how to operate all of this.

"Ready?" Percy asked us.

"Yeah," we both replied. I had seriously doubted that these horses-these _pegasi,_ I corrected myself- could actually fly, but I was proved wrong, as I was going to be many more times that day.

Percy nodded to us, turned back to the reins, and shouted "Go, Blackjack!"

To my astonishment, one of the pegasi turned back and _winked_ at Percy. It turned back around, and we shot into the air.

I've been on airplanes before, but it was nothing like this experience. Imagine being in an airplane that is taking off, but it doesn't have the top half on. Imagine how fast you would be going. It was like that. I seriously thought my face was going to rip off for a second. Then Annabeth reached over and hit some big purple on the dashboard in front of us, and some kind of a bubble appeared around us. It was a giant purple protection bubble, I realized, to keep the wind from knocking us out of the chariot. I looked to my left, outside of the chariot. We had just been on the ground seconds ago… now we were 2,000 feet in the air. Airplane height. We were in the clouds.

"Oh. My. God." I breathed.

"Gods," Annabeth corrected. I stared at her.

"Gods?" I asked.

"Yes, _gods._ You said you wanted us to explain. This would be a good place to start." Percy turned to me and let go of the reins. The pegasi seemed to have no problem with flying on their own, apparently. "Gods. Here's why we are here. I never did a good job at explaining this to a new camper, but you are a demigod."

Shock overwhelmed me, even though I didn't know what the term meant yet. All I knew was that the word _gods _was being used way too much. I had heard, even thought, that word in my head a lot during that dream I had had last night.

"And a demigod would be..." I said.

"Half human, half god. Greek god, to be exact." Annabeth explained.

"You- you think I'm half _god?_" I questioned, not believing what I was hearing.

"We know it," Percy said. "We've been watching you for a while now. You were one of the first demigods to come to our attention after the Titan War ended this summer. After the gods promised to claim all their children by the time they turned thirteen. You're pretty powerful."

"What gods? What children?" I asked, frustrated. Percy and Annabeth seemed to know exactly what they were talking about, but they weren't explaining very well.

Annabeth took a breath. "Listen. You've heard of Greek mythology, right?"

I nodded.

"Well, those gods, Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Artemis, all of them... they're real. They move from country to country, whichever one carries the heart of Western civilization. They've been in the U.S. for a long time."

"You've got to be kidding me," I said. "How is that possible? They were just stories."

The sky turned dark grey. Lightning flashed. Thunder roared. I thought I was going to be flung out of the chariot. It was like the sky had gotten mad at me. It cleared up after a second or two.

"Zeus doesn't like being called 'just a story', Jake." Annabeth said quietly.

I stared at them. They must've been playing some kind of practical joke on me. "No. No, there's no way they can be real…"

"There is," said Percy. "Without them, the world as we know it would cease to exist."

"Okay," I said, just trying to please them. "So, if they are real, what does this have to do with me? And demigods? What are those?"

"Demigods are half god, half human," Percy explained. "They're…special. One of their parents was, well, _mortal._ The other one was a god. And you're one of them. One of us." I noticed that he said the word _mortal _like they were different from us.

I was stunned. I didn't even know what to say. "You're saying- you're saying that my father is a _god?_"

They nodded. "Have you ever seen pictures of your father, Jake? Ever talked to him? Does your mom like talking about him?" I shook my head at all of them.

"So… I'm a demigod." I said slowly. They nodded. "And you guys are too?"

"Yeah," Percy said. I'm the son of Poseidon, god of the sea. I have powers over water and stuff." He grinned.

"And… what are you?" I asked Annabeth.

"Daughter of Athena," Annabeth said proudly. "Goddess of wisdom, strategy, war, and patron of Athens." That _would _make sense, I thought. Wisdom and strategy. It would explain why she looked like she was analyzing how best to use you in a fight every time she looked at you. She seemed like a smart girl.

"So, you're the son of Poseidon and you're the daughter of Athena. If this is all real then, what am I?" I questioned.

Annabeth shifted her weight. "We don't know yet. Not many half bloods know who their godly parent is before they get to camp. Once you'll get there, you're sure to get claimed soon. You have to. The gods swore a promise to claim all their kids by the time they turned thirteen."

Now, you may have been thinking I was taking this whole "you're a demigod, your father is one of the Greek gods" thing pretty well, but I was sort of freaking out. My father? A Greek god? It just seemed too weird to comprehend. At the mention of having to be "claimed"-whatever that was- by the time you turned 13, I panicked.

"Thirteen?" I asked, panic in my voice. "I turned thirteen last May! Did I do something wrong that made me not be able to get claimed? Uh, what is 'claiming' anyway?"

"Nah, you didn't do anything wrong," Percy said. "The gods can be a little… forgetful. I didn't make them swear that oath until August, so it's not that late."

My jaw dropped. "_You_ personally made a bunch of gods swear an oath?"

Percy smiled. "Yeah, long story, but I was part of a prophecy that could've destroyed the world, but I didn't. You hear about those storms last summer?"

I nodded. The freak storms had been a big topic towards the end of summer.

"Yeah, that was the biggest and worst monster ever to walk the Earth. He and the Titans almost destroyed us, but we won the battle and I made the gods swear to an oath so it wouldn't happen again. Things have been better since then." Percy said. I noticed that he was looking at Annabeth while he said that. Were they dating?

"So, uh, you guys mentioned a camp. What camp, exactly?" I questioned.

"Camp Half-Blood," Annabeth said. "It's a camp for demigods, a place for them to train to fight monsters and things like that. It's the only place on Earth where half bloods are almost completely safe from monsters. It's mostly a summer camp, but some kids stay year round. That's where you'll be claimed and spend most of your time from now on."

"Right," I said. "And, uh, what's claiming?"

"Claiming is when your godly parent sends you a sign, informing everyone that you are their son or daughter," Percy explained. "Usually the gods' symbol appears over the demigods' head. That's what happened to me. The trident, the symbol of Poseidon, appeared over my head."

"Oh," I replied. "Cool. So when are we getting to this camp?"

Percy looked over the side of the chariot. "About 2 minutes. We just got into Manhattan."

I looked at the skyline, and sure enough, it was Manhattan. I could see the Empire State Building, as well as many other skyscrapers. This was amazing. We went all the way from south of Boston to Manhattan-in a tricked out chariot pulled by pegasi- in a matter of 15 minutes. Under normal circumstances, that would never have been possible.

The chariot swung to the left as the pegasi flew away from the Empire State Building, lowering us as we passed the Williamsburg Bridge, and over some woods. At first, I couldn't see anything, but then, out of what at first appeared to just be part of the woods, buildings started appearing. Strawberry patches were everywhere. One giant tree, shimmering with gold, and some large snakelike thing crouched near it, was at the front of all of this. As we started to land, Annabeth turned to me.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood," She said.


	4. Lots And Lots of Camp

**Author's Note: Well, this is really the last fill-in chapter before we start getting to the good stuff... **

The pegasi came down to a stop in front of that big tree with the golden glow about it that I had noticed. As soon as I came within ten feet of the tree, I could tell there was something definitely not normal about it. I noticed that there was something that looked like a big golden rug on the tree. I still didn't quite fully believe all this Greek god and demigod stuff, but only because I was still a little in shock. As I raked my mind through all the Greek mythology stuff I had learned in school last year, I realized that it was the Golden Fleece, from the myth about Jason. Surely it couldn't be _real,_ though.

Then, the long, gigantic snakelike thing I had seen as we were coming down came right in front of the tree. My jaw dropped. It was a dragon, twenty feet long, with bright yellow scales everywhere on its body. It had dropped down right in front of us, wings flapping, teeth gnashing in my direction, ready to attack.

"Whoa, Peleus!" Annabeth said, jumping out of the chariot. "This is Jake," She explained to the dragon, like it could understand who she was talking about. "He's a new camper. Be nice." At this, the dragon-I guess Peleus was his name- backed off, and started stalking around the Golden Fleece.

"Sorry about that," Apologized Percy. "Peleus guards Thalia's tree and the Golden Fleece over there. The fleece keeps the camps' borders safe from monsters."

"It's cool," I replied, still in shock of the dragon. "So this really is…real."

Annabeth and Percy nodded.

Wow. This whole time, I had doubted in the back of my mind that they were serious about all of this, thinking that Aston Kutcher or someone would run out of nowhere and be like, "YOU JUST GOT PUNK'D!" Apparently, that wasn't going to happen. This was all real. My father was-_is_- one of the Greek gods. Hopefully I'd find out which one soon. Percy had said I was powerful, so powerful must mean I'd have to get claimed sooner or later, especially since the gods promised to claim all their children or whatever.

I followed Percy out of the chariot. He and Annabeth motioned for me to follow them towards what looked like a big mansion, down a beat-up path that looked like it had been stepped on millions of times. This camp could have been a regular summer camp, I noticed. There were some volleyball and basketball courts to the left of the big mansion, and I could see more buildings in the background. The place-from what I'd seen so far- looked like your average summer camp, but it had this magical feeling about it, like nothing was normal around here.

The big mansion in front of us had a scary, very intimidating, look to it. It looked like it could have belonged to the richest person in the world 30 years ago. It looked like it hadn't got a good coat of paint in a long time, which made it look a little run down. Still, I looked at it and shuddered. There was something magical and scary about that place.

A group of 20 or so campers were standing around the steps of this mansion. They all seemed to be teenagers, but there were some pretty young kids there, around eight or nine. The oldest ones looked college aged. Almost all of them were wearing the same orange T-shirt, windbreaker, or sweatshirt, with a bunch of letters that I somehow recognized as Ancient Greek. Well, duh, I thought-slapped my brain. Greek demigods, Ancient Greek, of course I'd know it was Ancient Greek. But I noticed something. The longer I stared at the letters, I found that I could _read _them. Somehow, I understood what they said. I guess it was another perk of being a demigod.

Anyway, the second all the campers saw Annabeth and Percy, they all came running over to us. They were smothered by a lot of "Yay! You're back!" among other things. They were obviously very popular at this place. As soon as they broke away, the campers seemed to notice me. A couple kids with curly hair and mischevious looks in their eyes-obviously twins- acknowledged me. One of them turned to Annabeth and said, "So you guys weren't just on a romantic getaway? You actually were getting one?" Annabeth and Percy blushed, but they nodded. So they _were _dating.

"Dang," The curly haired kid grumbled. "I owe Will some money then." Everybody laughed at that. Feeling a little uncomfortable, I glanced at Annabeth, who put a hand on my shoulder.

"This is Jake Bird, everybody," She said.

"Parentage?" A tall, big, gruff girl said. Percy sighed. "We don't know yet, Clarisse."

Everybody groaned. "We picked up another kid today, too," Clarisse said. Annabeth raised her eyebrows, like she wanted more information. "She's with Chiron right now, in the Big House," She gestured towards the big mansion behind us- "getting this all explained. This kid, he knows what the deal is?" She regarded me like she could throw me 30 feet into the woods. Given that she was beefy, muscular, and huge, I bet she could.

"We explained it," Annabeth said. "We'll send him over to Chiron though. Let us do some introducing first." Within the next five minutes, I was introduced to nearly everyone standing there. It was all a rush. The big girl- Clarisse La Rue- was the head counselor of the Ares cabin. She was a daughter of the god of war? Made sense, I guess. She seemed like a fighter. She didn't seem so nice, though. I hoped I wasn't a son of Ares. "Don't worry about her," Annabeth whispered to me as she walked away. "She's not as bad as she seems."

Next up were Connor and Travis Stoll, the twins with the curly hair. The one that had made the joke about Percy and Annabeth on a romantic getaway was Connor, the other one Travis. I knew right away I would never be able to tell them apart. They were co-head counselors of the Hermes cabin. I knew that Hermes was the god of thieves, so I made sure to keep my valuables with me at all times. As they walked away, I got the feeling that they were trying to devise the best way to prank me.

Jake Mason, the head counselor for the Hephaestus cabin, shook my hand. Hard. He was muscular too, like he spent a lot of time hitting and swinging heavy things. Hephaestus was the god of blacksmiths. Maybe they made weapons for the camp! I wasn't sure if I wanted to be a son of Hephaestus. Jake had scars all over his body, and they looked like they hurt. The other Hephaestus kids there looked scarred and tough, too. He seemed nice, but I didn't think I would like being a Hephaestus kid.

A couple of kids from Apollo nodded to me, but their head counselor, Will Solace, the kid Connor apparently owed money to, wasn't there to introduce himself. One of them, a skinny tan kid about my height, came up to me.

"You ball?" He asked, indicating the basketball in his hand. I shook my head.

"Can't play for my life," I said.

"Oh," the kid said. "Just thought, because… your last name is Bird, right?" I nodded. I knew where this was going.

"You related to Larry Bird?" He asked. I nodded again.

All the Apollo kids gasped. "Dude, you know he was a demigod, right?"

My jaw dropped. "What?"

"Larry Bird, son of Apollo, best basketball player this camp ever saw," One of the other Apollo kids said. I looked to Annabeth and Percy for their confirmation. They nodded.

"No way," I said. "I… I never knew."

"Hmm… that's weird. Two demigods in the same family." One of the Apollo kids said. The tan kid that had talked to me introduced himself as Devin. They all walked away, bows and arrows in hand, a couple of them dribbling basketballs, a couple absent-mindedly swinging huge bandages around.

I turned to Annabeth. "So, uh, what happens next?"

She frowned. "You go to Chiron, and we try to figure out who you are."


End file.
